Fur-effect fabrics and method of making same



April 18, 1961 w. R. KEEN 2,979,803

FUR-EFFECT FABRICS AND METHOD oF MAKING SAME Filed June 5, 195e I@ Fai 7.

IN VEN TOR.' Wfl/iam oZ/z'lz Kee A TTORNE YS United States Patent O FUR-EFFECT FABRICS AND METHOD F MAKING SAME William Rollin Keen, Media, Pa., assignor to Collinsl 8: Aikman Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporatlon of Delaware Filed June 5, 1956, Ser. No. 589,550

9 Claims. (Cl. 28-72) This invention relates to fur-effect fabrics made from textile yarns, and more particularly to fabrics which simulate natural furs and to a method for making such fabrics. Fabrics have been heretofore produced having a soft furry pile surface, which fabrics may be considered a substitute for natural furs. Such fabrics, however, have failed to simulate many natural furs, since they have normally provided only one face surface of substantially equal length pile fibers. It is the primary object of this invention to provide a woven fur-effect fabric from textile yarns which closely simulates natural furs by having a furry under-coating of fine fibers and coarser fibers extending beyond theunder-coating in the manner of the beard hairs of a natural fur.

Many difficulties have been encountered in attempting to provide simulated beard hairs in a fur-effect fabric. In natural furs there are-*substantially two face surface levels. One is the lower level of the furry under-coat hairs and the other is the outer or upper level of the extended beard hairs. Great difi'iculy has been encountered in endeavoring to provide these two levels in fureflect fabrics due to the impossibility of shearing the under-coat yarns to form one level without at the same time cutting the simulated beard hairs to the same length. It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide a method of producing two substantially clearly defined levels of pile yarns in a fur-effect fabric.

Some fur effect fabrics having both the fne underbody and the high extending beard hairs have been produced by knitting, whereby a small card is attached to the knitting machine and fibers of different fineness and length are carded and engaged by the knitting needles and knitted into the backing yarns as the pile. This method produces essentially the beard hair effect of furs in this fabric. However, the inherent characteristics of a knitted fabric are such that these fibers are not adequately anchored in the backing and the fabric therefore has a very pronounced tendency to sized in normal wear. Principally, they do not have the fabric stability of a woven pile fabric.

Accordingly, it is another object of this invention to provide a woven fur-effect fabric and a method of making such a fabric.

The above objects and others, which will be apparent from the following description, are achieved by weaving a pile fabric in which the pile yarns are formed by twisting or plying two or more different types of yarns in such a way that after the pile is cut one or more of these plies of yarn can be straigthened out to a length appreciably longer than other plies of the composite yarn.

One embodiment of the fabric and method of the present invention is described in the following description in the drawings of which:

Fig. 1 is an enlarged view of a part of an end of yarn used in the invention;

Fig. 2 1s an enlarged View of part of an end of a composite yarn used in one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of a part of a composite yarn used in another embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing the yarn of Fig. 3 woven as the pile yarn in a double woven fabric;

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of the double woven fabric of Fig. 4 being split to form two cut pile fabrics;

Fig. 6 is a schematic view showing one of the cut pile fabrics of Fig. 5 being processed to remove the twist from the yarns;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged side elevation of the fabric shown in Fig. 6 with the highly twisted yarns extended above the normally twisted yarns; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged vie'v showing a composite yarn used in another embodiment of the invention. j

ln making a fur-effect fabric according to the invention, a composite yarn is used. Examples of satisfactory composite yarns are shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 8. A core yarn 10which may be of one or more twisted ends is wrapped with a yarn 11 which is given substantially greater delivery than the core yarn 10 as shown in Fig. 2. The composite yarn 12 is then woven as the pile yarn in the double woven fabric 13 having base weaves 14 and 15 as shown in Fig. 4. The double woven fabric 13 is split in a conventional manner as shown in Fig. 5 to form two separate cut pile woven fabrics 14 and 15.

The fabrics 14 and 1S are then given a special finishing treatment as shown in Fig. 6 to straighten out the twist in all of the yarns 10 and 11. This is accomplished by the tiger 16. Due to the substantial differences in delivery of the yarns 10 and 11 in the composite yarn 12 the tigering treatment, in unravelling the wound yarns, causes the yarns 11 to extend substantially above the level of the yarns 10. To produce a furry effect and to remove any kink that may remain in the yarns the fabric 14 is passed over a heated grooved roller running at high speed which not only straightens out the twist retained by the yarn but also any crimp within the individual fibers of it. This may be accomplished with fur-finishing machines, such as are shown in United States Letters Paent Nos. 1,604,523, M. H. Kronson, October 26, l926, and 1,771,144, P. P. Ruhe, et al., July 22, 1930, or the like. The effect of the final finishing operation is shown in Fig. 7. The individual fibers of the yarn are separated to produce the fiuffy, furry effect shown in the drawing. Because of the removal of the twist and kink in the ends 10 and 11, the ends l1 extend above the remainder of the body of combined ends 10 and 11, which form a substantially compact furry under-coating. Because the core yarns 10 are surrounded by the yarns 11 they possess a substantial degree of stability. The resultant fabric simulates a natural fur having a soft furry under-coating of fibers of substantially uniform length and a lesser number of beard hairs of substantially uniform length extending above the under-coating.

One variation of the yarn used to make a fur effect fabric according to the invention is shown in Fig. 3. There the core yarn 10 and the high delivery yarn 11 are wrapped with a third yarn 9 having a low delivery compared to yarn 11. When this yarn is woven as a pile yarn in the fabric 14 and tigered as shown in Fig. 6 the yarn 9, due to its low delivery, is of substantially the same height as the core yarn 10. This additional yarn 9 provides a heavier under-coating relative to the number of beard hairs 11'. It will be appreciated that in this manner variations in the character of the finished fur effect fabric may be achieved.

Another variation is illustrated in Fig. 8 where the core yarn 10 is shown X-wound with a plurality of wrapping yarns 11 which have a high delivery. In the finished 3. ingly greater relative to the furryrunder-coating than in the fabrics heretofore described. By this means an additional variation in the character of the fur-effect fabric may be achieved.

As a specific example of a fur-effect fabric made ac" yarns and the manner in which the composite yarns are formed to provide a great number of variations in the nature of the simulated fur-ef^ct fabric tobe produced. Also the core may be single-ply and the wrap portion of Figs. 3 and 8 may be single ply.

The effect of the method described above may be enhanced by employing highly crimped fibers in the yarns which are to form the under-coatingV of the fur-effect fabric. For example, the yarn may be formed of a blend of 30% of 3 denier Dynel of normal crimp, in which case the crimp would account for approximately 30% of the length of the fiber after the treatment of Fig. 6, with 50% of 3 denier Orlon of normal crimp and of 20 denier nylon with a special crimp which would account for about 70% ofthe ultimate fiber length. This blend is spun 2 and 2/40s count, and 17 turns per inch of the blend are twisted together in the reverse direction with 12 turns per inch.

The method may also be modied to include the use of a shrinkable material in the ends which is shrunk to form the under-coating of the fur-effect fabric. For example, 80% of 3 denier Dynel of normal crimp may be blended with 20% of 20 denier nylon of excessive crimp. In this modified method each of the pile yarns includes a' first portion having a greater degree of twist than theY r'mainder of each of said yarns, the first portion has a greater dgree of crimp than the remainder of each of said yarns and the remainder of each of said yarns is substantially more shrinkable than the first portion. When the pile fabric is treated the crimp, and twist are removed from the first portion of each of the pile yarns causing them to lengthen and the remainder of each of said yarns is subjected to shrinkingV treatment causingthem to become shorter in the resulting fabric. The first portion of each of said yarns thus eXtnds to form one pile level above the base of the fabric and the remainder of each of said yarns Yforms a shorter pile level. In such case the treatment of Fig. 6 would be modified'to include an appropriate shrinking atmosphere such-as moist heat to shrink the Dynel to form the under-coating.

' In the specific embodiment of the invention described above, a V weave'is shown. A W weave may be used or any other suitable weave without departing from the invention.

It will be apparent that by combining the various features of the invention in different ways, a number of Y different rects may be produced in the resultant fur-effect fabric. Such variations are, of course, included within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

Having thus described my invention,.I claim:

1. A method of makinga fur-effect fabric comprisingforminga woven cut pile fabric in which the pile yarns are composite yarns having a core yarn with a second yarn wrapped aroundisaid core yarn, shearing the pile surface of said fabric to form a substantially level surface removing the twist in said second yarns to form two substantially unform pile' surface levels in said fabric by tigering the surface of the pile fabric and finishing the pile surface to produce a fur effect fabric by passing the pile surface over a heated grooved roller running at high speed to remove substantially all twist and kink from said yarns, thereby producing a substantially uniform level of beard hair simulating fibers and avlower level of furry undercoat simulating fibers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the core yarns comprise multi-ply yarns;

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said second yarns are l multi-ply yarns.

4.Y The method of claim l further characterized by the fact thata plurality of high delivery yarns are wrapped about saidcore yarn. Y

5. The fabric made bythe method Yof claim 1.

6.- A method of forming a fur-effect fabric comprising forming a cut pile fabric of pile yarns, a first portion of'each of said vpile yarns having-a greater degreel of twist than the remainder of each of said yarns, said first portion of each of said Vyarns having a greater degree of crimp than the remainder of each of said yarns, the remainder of each of said yarns being substantially more shrinkable than said first portion and treating the fabric so form d to extend said first portion of each of said pile yarns to a uniform level substantially farther above the base of each of said fabric than the-remainder of said pile yarns. t

7. The fabric made by the method of claim 6.

8. A method of making a fur-effect fabric comprising weaving a double woven pile fabric in which the pile yarns are composite yarns comprising individual strands, at least one of said strands being a core and at least one of the r'maining strands being Wrapped around said core, splitting the double woven fabric soY formed to produce two cut pile fabrics having substantially level pile surfaces, separating the Wrapped strands from their respective core strands and straightening the separated, wrapped strands to form two substantiallyV uniform pile levels in the pile surfac"s of said cut pile fabrics.

9. The fabric made by the method of claim 8.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,604,523 Kronson Oct. 26, 1926 1,760,464 Achtmeyer May 27,'1930 1,989,441 Curtis Jan. 29, 1935 2,026,693 McLean Jan. 7, 1936 2,172,439 Dreyfus et al Sept. 12, 1939 2,475,083 Davis July 5, 1949 2,571,087 Underwoodet al. Oct. 9, 1951 2,676,384 Reinhardt et al. Apr. 27, 1954 2,754,578 GroatY July 17, 1956 2,790,225 Cogovan et al. Apr. 30, 1957 2,810,950 Rice Oct. 29, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 228 Great Britain of 1894 UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE CERTIFICATION OF CORRECTION Patent Nm. 2,979,803 Apr11 1e, 1961 William Rollin Keen It is hereby Certified that error' a ppears in the above numbered patent req'1irng Correction and that the sa id Letters Patent should read as Corrected below'.

Column 4, line 32, strike out "of each" and insert the seme after "remainder-f", same line.

Signed and sealed this Ist day of August 1961.,

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWIDER DAVID L. LADD Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A METHOD OF MAKING A FUR-EFFECT FABRIC COMPRISING FORMING A WOVEN CUT PILE FABRIC IN WHICH THE PILE YARNS ARE COMPOSITE YARNS HAVING A CORE YARN WITH A SECOND YARN WRAPPED AROUND SAID CORE YARN, SHEARING THE PILE SURFACE OF SAID FABRIC TO FORM A SUBSTANTIALLY LEVEL SURFACE REMOVING THE TWIST IN SAID SECOND YARNS TO FORM TWO SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM PILE SURFACE LEVELS IN SAID FABRIC BY TIGERING THE SURFACE OF THE PILE FABRIC AND FINISHING THE PILE SURFACE TO PRODUCE A FUR EFFECT FABRIC BY PASSING THE PILE SURFACE OVER A HEATED GROOVED ROLLER RUNNING AT HIGH SPEED TO REMOVE SUBSTANTIALLY ALL TWIST AND KINK FROM SAID YARNS, THEREBY PRODUCING A SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM LEVEL OF BEARD HAIR SIMULATING FIBERS AND A LOWER LEVEL OF FURRY UNDERCOAT SIMULATING FIBERS. 